Equipaje of Architecture attends European Summer School in Classic Architecture in Sweden

UST Graduate School and College of Architecture faculty member Asst. Prof. Ruth Marie Equipaje, who also is the current Chair of the International Network for Traditional Building Architecture and Urbanism (INTBAU) Philippines, was awarded a scholarship to attend and represent the country in the European Summer School in Classical Architecture (ESCCA) in Sweden held from July 4 to 30, 2016. This was organized by INTBAU Sweden and sponsored by Ax:son Johnson Foundation held at the design studio in Engelsberg, Ängelsberg, Sweden, one of the UNESCO Heritage Sites in Scandinavia.

ESCCA 2016 was participated in by mostly practicing architects from the United States, China, Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia, United Kingdom, Ireland, Panama, Nigeria, Norway, Sweden, Australia, and the Philippines with notable professors in Classical Architecture, such as Robert Adam, Hugh Petter, George Saumarez Smith and Russel Taylor – United Kingdom; Mieke Bosse and Peter Drijver of Scala Architects – Netherlands; and Christine Franke, Christopher Liberatos, and Jenny Bevan– United States, among others. For a month, the class had studio workshops on free-hand drawing, clay modeling of details and ornaments, design classes on classical architecture including case studies of old town squares. The culmination of the class was an exhibit and final presentation of works by the students held in Stockholm, Sweden.

The University of Santo Tomas is one of the top four universities in the Philippines and is consistently ranked among the top 1000 universities in the whole world. UST is both timeless, owing to its more than four hundred years of quality Catholic education, and timely, as it continuously responds to the needs of the present.